You can ask anybody who has lived with me: I’m not an organized person naturally. If it weren’t for my much-more-organized husband, I would have piles of laundry and stacks of random crap covering most of the floor.
But there’s one space in our apartment that I try to keep fairly organized: my nightstand.
This might seem a little odd. Of all the spots to keep neat, why would I choose my nightstand? I only really see it in the morning and at night, and it’s such a small space in the apartment.
These reasons, though, are key to why organizing your nightstand is so effective, especially if you tend to be a cluttered person.
Nightstands reveal what your priorities are
I thought that having my nightstand cluttered with books, lotions, mugs, pens, journals, jewelry, and more showed some personality and charm. But when I really evaluated what I kept on my nightstand, I realized there were lots of things I basically never used. Why was I keeping these things in such a conspicuous place? Nightstands tend to accrue junk like a ship accrues barnacles. Organizing your nightstand forces you to take stock of what’s piled up, and actually decide if it’s important. Do you keep a journal there because you imagine yourself as the type of person who journals every night, but in fact you haven’t opened it in months? Now’s your time to decide: Either move the journal to a different storage place, or give yourself a week to start a journaling habit. Is there a pile of books you’ve been meaning to read? Pick one and make it your focus, moving the rest to a better-suited location. Nightstands are in a prominent location in our lives, so it’s important to be selective about what you allow to stay there.
Nightstands are a small space to focus on
Maybe one of the bigger obstacles to me keeping things organized is that I often get overwhelmed. Once you get to a certain point of messiness, it’s a pretty big project to clean it up. But your nightstand is an easy starting place: it’s small enough that it feels doable, and it’s a discrete space so that it feels like you’ve actually finished something when it’s organized. Beyond that initial organizing, it’s also minimal upkeep.
Nightstands kickstart your routine
Because nightstands are where we start and end our day, they can serve as a guide for our morning and evening routines. Keep a glass of water on it if you want to drink water first thing in the morning. Keep your headphones there if you want to meditate before bed. Keep a book there if you want to read before you fall asleep. Keep a journal there if you want to write down your dreams when you wake up. Routines are a key part of creativity, but they can take some work to establish. Use your nightstand to help you remember, and remove any excuses.
Nightstands are the first thing you see in the morning
I didn’t realize how much having a messy bedside space was weighing on me until I first organized it. I kind of liked having a bunch of stuff right at my fingertips from bed, and thought the stack of books and journals on it showed personality.
Let go of that mindset, friends.
Once I decided to organize my nightstand, the next morning felt different when I woke up. Instead of being greeted by a messy, overflowing space, I saw a clean, open surface, with only the things I actually needed. It sounds small, but it really made a difference to how I started my day. I’m all for the idea that keeping a cluttered desk may stimulate creativity, but I found that waking up to a “blank slate” of sorts with an organized nightstand was also beneficial to creativity.
It may seem like a silly or small thing, but having an organized nightstand helps my mind calm down, which allows me to be more creative. Maybe someday I’ll see if that trick works with my desk and other workspaces in the apartment, but don’t hold your breath….
Are you an organized person? If not, do you have areas of your space you insist on organizing? Let me know in the comments!
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Featured image by Toa Heftiba